Best way to teach alphabet recognition?

In the fall, I will be teaching in a 4K classroom. I know that I will need to teach letter and sound recognition and would like some suggestions as to how others have taught the letters to 4 year olds and the sequence. I know that their are several ways-like just alphabet in order, letter of the week or the sequence(don't know specific name) that teaches in certain order to help with word spelling later. Just looking for some suggestions as to which techniques have worked best for others. thanks

I would start by teaching your students the letters in their own name.

i teach Kindergarten and we use a program called Handwriting without Tears. They have a pre-k catalog that looks really cute. You might want to check it out. HWT gives a great order to teach the letters and explains why it makes so much sense. HWT us just great all around, I really LOVE it. If you ordered a catalog or checked their web site, you could explore if it was an option for you. Good luck!

Congrats on teaching Pre-K in the fall. What a great age group!! I just love it.

I used flschoolsupply's alphabet curriculum and the workbook worksheets. I think their address is the same (www.flschoolsupply.com). There are tons of activities for each of the letters plus I totally love the alphabet sound rap. My class thought they were so cool when they would sing it. Of course, you will have to demonstrate it so get practicing on your rapping!! It's fun though and they will know the sound from every letter once they learn the song!

I taught 4 year olds for a brief time but I used to teach the 3 year olds. What I did to help them learn their letters was to buy the alphabet cards (the kind you hang on the wall with all the letters and pictures on them). Then we would recite this simple chant. For example, the letter A had a picture of an apple on it, so my class would changt A A apple. B was bus so it was B B Bus and so. That helped them learn the picture and the letter. Also, I cut out all the alphabet letters on sand paper and would have the kids trace the letter with their fingers.

For the 4 year olds, I would take my cards and have them also chant this rhyme with my cards to teach sounds of the letters. A was Apple Apple (ah ah ah). B was Bus Bus (buh buh buh). I can tell you that it worked because the 4 year olds would go home and chant it at home or whenever they recongized a letter they would tell their parent what sound the letter made.

What also helped was that I printed out the letters of the alphabet in outline form in various fonts and had them color the inside. This helped them recognize how the letter looked in the various font styles.

Hi,
Just please be careful when you're teaching the sounds, because the letter "Bb" does NOT say, "buh." Us Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers really have a hard time RETEACHING the children, because they are so used to saying the "buh" sound, when in fact, the letter "Bb" says, "b", without the "uh" sound. It's the same with every other letter (except the vowels)- "Rr" says, "rrrrr", not "ruh" and so on... When they get to first grade, they will begin to write "buh" when they only have to write a "b." It's too much annunciation the way you are teaching them. Please be careful. Thanks for reading and have a great school year!

Thank you for specifying the importance of teaching correct sounds to students. I am a preschool teacher who just started at a new school where the teachers are teaching "Bah" "Kah" in stead of "b" and "K." Not only is it horribly annoying, but I am already seeing students struggle making the transition between saying the individual sounds and combining them into words. It is so important to teach this correctly!

Hi,
I am a K teacher and I teach letter sounds using the alphabet jive--it's fun and interactive. It goes like this: "b says /b/, b says /b/, bouncing ball bouncing ball /b/ /b/ /b/". the kids make an action like a ball bouncing. i got mine off a site called teachers pay teachers.

The Master teacher I worked with while doing my student teaching use to tell me the same thing and it is so true. I can see a difference by the end of the year with children who come to us from other programs. I'm supervising a group of Pre K teachers and we are in a debate as to the best order in which to teach the alphabet. We are working on a letter a week, submerging the children in everything that makes the sound of that letter and making it fun and interesting for the children too. Some want to go straight through in order of the alphabet others want to skip around, putting off vowels for some and others tailoring the alphabet to go with certain times of the year like "V" at Valentines day. What are your thoughts?

It is okay to skip around learning the alphabet. I have some student that only knows some letters. I give them those letters to work with, just to build their confidence for other letters they think are more challenging. I have 3-5k students that are reading 1st grade level and others that don't recognize the letter in their name. It is difficult for me to work with the two extremes and not make them feel excluded or left out of anything. Do I teach at the lower level or both? Do I always divide them up? Do I partner them so the higher learner helps the lowers? Any suggestions?